Can Windows antivirus software detect non-Windows viruses?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Leo Dias
  • Start date Start date
L

Leo Dias

Hello,

I've Googled this question to no avail, and thought that perhaps
alt.comp.anti-virus could help.

Do any Windows-based antivirus software detect non-Windows viruses
(e.g. Linux)?
I'm specifically running Sophos, and have been unable to find a solid
answer in the docs or site.

Thanks in advance,
Leo
 
Leo Dias said:
Hello,

I've Googled this question to no avail, and thought that perhaps
alt.comp.anti-virus could help.

Do any Windows-based antivirus software detect non-Windows viruses
(e.g. Linux)?
Yes.

I'm specifically running Sophos, and have been unable to find a solid
answer in the docs or site.
Click to expand...

AV software should be able to detect malware that doesn't affect the
platform it is sitting on (a server for instance). Look to see if the
ELF filetype is listed.
 
http://downloads.sophos.com/readmes/eng/readntg.txt
Click to expand...

Excellent, thanks for the details!

***
You're welcome, and I've heard this question (or people's
misinterpretation of the idea) many times, and you're right - there's
not much out there in the way of an explanation. One example people use
to show the need to do this is that of the server - of course you will
want the ability to recognize that which can affect client systems
(perhaps Linux or OS-X) as well as protect the server (perhaps Windows)
itself.

Same thing goes for viruses whos target environment is itself hosted on
yet another software platform (macroviruses Java viruses and other
virtual machine implementations). You wouldn't want your Linux antivirus
program to ignore viruses that affect your Windows virtual machine
environment for instance.
***
 
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